Recently, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2018, the Dirty Water Act, which completely trashes the protections of the Clean Water Act. Unfortunately, this is just one of many attacks on this bedrock environmental safeguard that protects public health and wildlife by protecting our waters. Some members of Congress seem to have forgotten about the polluted past of our rivers, lakes and streams. The folks in Boston, however, still have a good reminder of how things use to be.

It’s a tradition to play the 1960s classic hit Dirty Water as a victory anthem after every Red Sox win. True to its name, the lyrics mention how polluted the Charles River and Boston Harbor were at the time. It’s a past we don’t want to go back to, a past the Clean Water Act helped clean up.